Snohomish Jury Recomends Death For Byron Sherf

The Monroe prison inmate convicted of murdering Corrections Officer Jayme Biendl was sentenced to death this morning by a Snohomish County jury. If the sentence is affirmed by a judge later today, Byron Sherf will become the ninth inmate on death row in Washington.

Byron Sherf admitted to strangling Officer Jayme Biendl with an amplifier cord in January 2011 while she was alone in the chapel at Monroe Correctional Complex. At the time of murder he was serving life in prison for rape.

A Snohomish County Superior Court jury convicted Sherf of aggravated murder last Thursday and today sentenced him to death.

There are eight inmates currently on death row in Washington. According to the Attorney General’s office Jonathan Gentry could be executed by the fall. He currently has an appeal pending before the Supreme Court.

Former death row inmate Darold Stenston was granted a retrial last year after the state Supreme Court overturned his double-murder conviction.

The last person executed in Washington was Cal Brown. He was put to death by lethal injection in 2010 for the murder of Holly Washa.